In Rwanda, Soil conservation is a challenge due to the steep topography and soils susceptible to erosion. During the colonial period, measures taken to control erosion included the use of Napier (Pennisetum perpereum) combined with trenches. Changes of political regimes, shortage of land and weak extension services led to destruction of soil conservation structures. In 1988, the World Agroforestry Centre and Rwanda Agricultural Research Institute (ISAR) started agroforestry in Rwanda and progressive terraces were introduced for soil conservation.

There is an increasing realization that landscape level problems require collective action to address them including:

1. Extension support and changing their mindset to empower farmers in natural resource management (NRM)

2. Awareness by local authorities and opinion leaders on natural resource management

Landcare Activities in Rwanda

To empower smallholder farmers the Landcare approach was introduced by the African Highlands Initiative (AHI) of the World Agroforestry Centre in 2009. The focus is on enhancing their social capital through building strong grassroots institutions for effective natural resource management and linking them to higher levels of governance. Current activities include characterizing grassroots institutions in a pilot site in Ngoma district to identify entry points and landcare principles and strategies which will form a basis for mainstreaming the approach within the government.

Rwanda has active farmer associations which will be the basis for Landcare. The success in Rwanda will hinge on Landcare’s key principles and practices of caring for the land, locally led initiative for improved economic, social, and environmental conditions.

Partners and way forward

The World Agroforestry Centre in Rwanda is working with various partners in mainstreaming the Landcare approach. These include the Ministry of Agriculture (MINAGRI), Institute of Scientific and Technological Research (IRST) in Butare, ISAR, Land Centre, National Land Husbandry Program and various partners.There is mutual interest and ample scope on Landcare, for future. Landcare will also utilize lessons learnt from similar projects like Sustainable Land Management (SLM), Land consolidation and Crop Intensification among others in improving livelihoods and landscapes. It will also collaborate with other projects especially the Irrigation and Rain water harvesting programmes which are also being implemented by the World Agroforestry Centre in Rwanda.

Contacts:

David Kagoro World Agroforestry Centre, Kigali, Rwanda kagosw269@yahoo.com

Jephine Mogoi World Agroforestry Centre, Nairobi, Kenya j.mogoi@cgiar.org